The US is making a number of steps in the right direction in order to fall in line with the EU-US privacy shield agreement, EU officials said on Thursday (18 October). The comments came as the Commission entered the first round of talks for the second annual review of the pact.

The EU's Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová will sit down with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday (18 October), as they launch a review of the EU-US privacy shield, while certain EU MEPs remain unconvinced by the agreement.

MEPs in the European Parliament’s powerful Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) want the European Commission to suspend its Privacy Shield agreement with the United States unless the Trump administration introduces data protection safeguards by 1 September, in a move that comes amid mounting transatlantic political tensions.

This week, the United States government will be faced with the choice of whether or not it will violate European data protection laws. In order to ensure the protection of personal data at home, European policymakers must shape rules and practices abroad, writes Christine Galvagna.

EU regulators have forced tech giants to comply with the bloc's strict data protection rules. But when Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin took over as top EU privacy watchdog in 2014, she said the mostly American companies were ignorant about Europe’s strict standards and thought "the world is uniform".

Europe’s powerful data protection regulators are banding together to coordinate how they investigate and sanction misbehaving companies before a major overhaul of the bloc’s privacy law takes effect in May.

Consumer advocates have urged the European Commission to propose legislation allowing for collective EU lawsuits after the bloc’s top court rejected a class action against Facebook on Thursday (25 January).

A year-old pact underpinning billions of dollars of transatlantic data transfers will get the green light from the European Union today (18 October) after the first review to ensure Washington protects Europeans’ data stored on US servers.

EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová said she was relieved that US President Trump's “America first” policy will not shatter the EU-US privacy shield agreement on data transfers, after meeting with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday (18 September) to scrutinise the one-year-old deal.

European privacy watchdogs have received “a few” complaints about the privacy shield data transfer agreement with the United States since it was brokered one year ago, the EU's top privacy advocate said in an interview.

The European Parliament wants the European Commission to 'Trump-proof' the Privacy Shield data sharing agreement between the EU and the United States after the new US administration threatened to roll back some privacy safeguards.

Aides to US President-elect Donald Trump recently asked EU officials over the phone which countries will be next to leave the bloc after Britain, outgoing US ambassador to the EU Anthony Gardner said. Gardner was told about the conversations by EU institution staff members, but was not in on the calls.

A new EU-US pact governing the transfer of personal data faces a second legal challenge, putting the details of the deal which underpins billions of dollars of transatlantic trade in digital services under further scrutiny.